Ken Rogoff is the Professor of Public Policy and the Professor of Economics at Harvard University and was previously the Economic Counsellor and Director of the Research Department of the IMF. He is one of the world’s leading advisers on the economic crisis.
After studying at Yale and MIT (the latter being interrupted by a nascent professional career as a chess Grandmaster), Ken worked as a professor at Harvard (in economics) and Princeton (in international affairs). He then served as an economist at the International Monetary Fund and also on the Board of Governors of the US Federal Reserve.
A widely published author on fiscal and monetary economics and macroeconomics, Ken has become best known for his work on financial crises. His book This Time is Different (co-authored with Carmen Reinhart), has become essential reading for the world’s finance ministers and central bank chiefs. The award-winning book is noted as the definitive history of financial crises over the last eight centuries and highlights the wide variety of mistakes and flawed solutions that have marked major economic events and the stark similarities between them. Looking at examples from sixty-six countries across five continents, Ken points out the common causes of financial crashes in both rich and poor nations, and explains why they occur unexpectedly and in clusters, and why the same short-term policy errors are just as likely to happen again.
Ken has been consulted by US and European governments on the causes, effects and best routes out of the global financial crisis, although he is cynical about governmental influence in financial crises. He states recoveries from debt-driven recessions are slower than recoveries from business cycle recessions and that it could still take Europe a decade to resolve its debt issues. He argues that when a state’s debts exceed 90 per cent of GDP, they will reduce the economic potential of the country.
Eduardo Aninat was born in 1948 city of Concepción – historically known for its strong manufacturing industry. After taking his primary and secondary education, studying at St. George's College in Santiago and later commercial engineering at Catholic University in Chile, in late 70's Eduardo obtained a M. A. and Ph. D. in Economics from Harvard University.
In 1981 he joined Aninat, Mendez and Associates, one of the largest consulting firms in Latin America. Eduardo left this post in 1994 with over a decade consulting experience for such international institutions as the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank, advising a number of governments on matters ranging from tax policy to debt restructuring. While working as a economy consultant in 1989 Eduardo became Harvard University Latin American coordinator for the international tax program.
After presidential elections in 1990 Eduardo was nominated as a Chilean Government adviser. Holding a range of economic positions in the Chilean Government; these included chief senior negotiator for bilateral Canada-Chile trade agreement, chief debt negotiator and senior advisor of the Central Bank of Chile and the Ministry of Finance. While in the office of the Ministry of Finance Aninat managed to decrease inflation from 8% to 6%, deeping the liberal line of directing economy. From 1994 till 1999 he was the chairmen of the board of governors of the International Monetary Found, representing Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, Peru, Uruguay, and Paraguay, involved in discussions on issues such as international policies for heavily indebted poor countries to the proposals for reform of the international financial architecture. Till 2003 he served IMF as a Deputy Managing Director.
Eduardo Aninat is formally the president of the Social Equity Forum (SEF) organized under the sponsorship of the Inter-American Development Bank to elevate social equity concerns to the forefront of macroeconomic and sectorial policy debates, and advance successful public policies in Latin America and the Caribbean. He is also on the board of directors of the Institute of the Americas.
Mr. Aninat was a member of the Board of Directors of ACCION International, non-profit organization with the mission of giving people the financial tools they need to improve their lives, one of the world’s leading micro-finance organizations. Dedicated to promoting economic growth through public-private partnership in trade infrastructure and investment Eduardo Aninat is one of the most essential people in world's economy.
